Hemp proponents call for crop's legalization

As a product, hemp can be made into clothing, rope, oils - even building materials. As a plant, however, it just so happens to be a variety of cannabis, which is where its problems begin and end in the U.S.

As a product, hemp can be made into clothing, rope, oils - even building materials. As a plant, however, it just so happens to be a variety of cannabis, which is where its problems begin and end in the U.S.

Proponents of legalizing industrial production of hemp say that stubborn – and baseless, they argue – association with marijuana is ultimately preventing American agriculture from benefitting from a crop whose products are already a nearly half-billion-dollar industry in the nation.

"Industrial hemp is grown in Canada, it's grown all over the world," said state Rep. Chris Walsh, D-Framingham, who recently refiled his original 2011 bill that would legalize regulated production of the plant in Massachusetts. "It's a good, natural crop - it has nothing to do with marijuana, and everything to do with supporting agriculture."

National lawmakers, too, are pushing to allow hemp cultivation, including Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell and Sen. Rand Paul and Democratic Sens. Jeff Merkley and Ron Wyden, who last week introduced the Industrial Hemp Farming Act of 2013, which would reclassify the crop as a non-drug. McConnell and Paul said the measure would be a boon for agriculture in their home state of Kentucky, where state lawmakers have also taken steps of their own to legalize industrial hemp production.

Several other states, including Vermont and Maine, have also already removed some of the barriers to growing hemp. But actual production of the crop has yet to take place, largely, hemp proponents say, because of resistance from the federal Drug Enforcement Administration. The DEA does not make any distinction between it and marijuana, both of which contain varying amounts of tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, the ingredient that can produce a "high."

"The term 'hemp' does not appear in the Controlled Substances Act, and (the) DEA does not compile statistics based on that term," agency spokesman Lawrence Payne said in a statement to the Daily News. "The CSA uses the term 'marijuana' to refer to all cannabis plants, regardless of their THC content."

Bill Downing, treasurer of the Massachusetts Cannabis Reform Coalition, said another typical law enforcement argument against growing hemp is that the plant itself would be indistinguishable from marijuana. But according to Downing, hemp is grown as stalks that are inches apart, whereas marijuana is cultivated as larger, leafy bushes.

"The idea that the two could be confused is ridiculous," he said.

Many hemp growers in other parts of the world have also produced varieties that have negligible THC levels, making them impractical as a drug.

But the stigma is tough to shake, especially as advocacy efforts for hemp often overlap with those for marijuana, Walsh said.

"It sort of tweaks the tail of the establishment, which only makes it worse," he said.

Walsh admits the hemp bill, which he originally filed in 2011 at the request of local hemp proponent Jim Pillsbury, is not one of his highest legislative priorities. He said he believes the state's dwindling agriculture base needs every option available to remain. The Hemp Industries Association, a non-profit trade association of hemp businesses, estimated sales of hemp products in the U.S. in 2011 totaled $452 million, for instance, and the fact those products all came from outside the country "further validates U.S. farmers' concerns that they are being shut out of the lucrative hemp market that Canadian farmers have cashed in on for over a decade now," said the organization's executive director, Eric Steenstra.

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Massachusetts' relatively small farms in particular could benefit from growing the "cash crop," said Lynda Simkins, director of the Natick Community Organic Farm.

"When a new variety of tomato comes out, we look at that, too" she said. "We're always adding to the diversity of our operations. I think (hemp) is something we should be looking at."

But even if the state legalizes the crop, willing farmers will have to proceed carefully so long as federal authorities also have jurisdiction over cannabis production, Simkins added.

Ultimately, Walsh said his bill may just have to wait for the right time, even as hemp's more controversial sister plant makes strides toward legalization in Massachusetts.

"I think the chances (of it passing) are slim, but slim is not none," he said. "If there are any indications it could move, or be attached to anything that could move, I'll definitely stand up to support it."

Scott O'Connell can be reached at 508-626-4449 or soconnell@wickedlocal.com